


Gambado

by cuddlesome



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, The Rise of Skywalker
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alliances, Calligraphy, Drabble Sequence, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Force Training, Major Character Injury, Peril, Protective Finn, TIE Silencer, TROS took my expectations for this scene and kicked them in the nads, The Rise of Skywalker - Freeform, my obligatory take on the teaser trailer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-13
Updated: 2019-04-16
Packaged: 2020-01-12 16:44:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18450566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cuddlesome/pseuds/cuddlesome
Summary: The obvious dangers involved in having one of the First Order's fastest ships charging Rey phases Kylo more than her. He's right to be concerned.Or the one where Kylo accidentally hits Rey with his TIE fighter.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Don't mind me I'm just here to write some quick snippets about that game changer scene from the teaser, you know the one, in-between SWC stuff.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note as of 12/2019--I was so disappointed by the way that the TIE scene actually played out in the movie with its horrific unintentionally funny nonsense. Not only does Kylo just launch himself at Rey in a feeble attempt to get her to use Force lightning (I presume? I've seen the movie twice and it's still not clear) but the damn cockpit rolls away and EXPLODES. Like a JOKE. And then he just waltzes out as if he didn't nearly die a fiery death. Literally why. I enjoyed TROS overall despite its bullshit but that scene in particular infuriates me, probably because I had built it up in my mind to be this great, epic thing and instead it might as well have been a parody.
> 
> All that being said, this fic is permanently discontinued, but there's a possibility it can still be enjoyed as a "what could have been" sort of story. I still treasure the memories of sitting in the airport on my way to Star Wars Celebration Chicago writing this so I can't bring myself to delete it.

The first time she suggests it, the image of Rey impaled on the end of one of his TIE’s wings flashes through Kylo's mind. The sight of her pure white tunic and wraps dripping red from the blossom of blood at her gut is vivid, too vivid.

 

“No,” he says, not looking away from the tiny durasteel pen nib he’s bending into shape with the Force.

 

He sits cross-legged on the floor of his shuttle’s cabin as he works. The nib hovers between his cupped hands as he twitches his fingers ever so slightly. It’s like building a lightsaber, but ten times as delicate. He’s been so absorbed in his task he notices only when Rey goes over to the creature that a porg has decided to make a nest in the cloak balled up on his cot. She sits next to the bird and begins to pet her and Kylo finds he can't be upset with her for sleeping on his clothing. He’s too focused on his work.

 

At Rey’s urging he’d begun to take up his old hobby again. The process of making the tools and the act of writing calligraphy both serve as relaxing activities. He needs a little relaxation amidst the tense alliance between himself, his remaining forces from the Order, and the Resistance. Besides, Rey adores the love letters he writes her.

 

“You think I can't do it?” She asks, preening the porg’s pin feathers.

 

His imagination subjects him to seeing her getting hit by his _Silencer_ again, this time slamming into the front of the cockpit so he sees her dead, empty eyes for a moment before she’s thrown off by the ship’s momentum.

 

“I know you can't do it,” he says, “because I won't help you.”

 

“Maybe I’ll go ask Poe.”

 

Kylo almost crushes the nib, shoulders drawing up. Inwardly he curses himself for being so transparent with his feelings, as always.

 

He lets the nib fall into his palm and turns to look at her. “You’d trust him to do that?”

 

“Not as much as I trust you, Ben.”

 

Rey has discovered the porg likes to be scratched on one side of her jowly face. The little beast leans into the touch with low coos and her bulging eyes falling shut.

 

Kylo sighs through his nose. He stands, walks over to Rey, and bends at the waist to kiss her. His bare fingers brush aside some strands of hair stuck to her cheek.

 

He draws back and looks into her eyes. “If I hurt you I’ll never forgive myself.”

 

“You won’t hurt me,” Rey says with confidence he doesn't deserve.

 

The porg flaps her wings and squawks, indignant at having attention pulled away from her.


	2. Chapter 2

Mistake. It had been a mistake to say yes. He knew that and he does it anyway.

 

The first time around she doesn't jump soon enough and he can't pull up in time.

 

One second she’s a white speck on the horizon, the next she’s right in front of the _Silencer_ in sharp relief and he swears he can make out the freckles spattered on her neck, the minute scar on her cheek that pales in comparison to his.

 

He barks an expletive. The _Silencer_ careens to one side in his effort to avoid her but he’s still too close.

 

Kylo feels the wall of pain in the Force. Only it’s not his pain, it’s hers, and he feels only a fraction of what she must be feeling as the _Silencer’s_ proton torpedo launcher slams into her.

 

The ship swerves and nearly flips over in his effort to bring it to a halt. The access hatch crashes open with a shove of the Force and he leaps out of the ship.

 

“Rey!”

 

The distance might as well be miles for how long it feels until he reaches where Rey lays in the dust. He collapses hard on his knees, reaches for her, then retracts his hands after deciding he’ll do more harm than good. Reaching out with the Force and the IT-S00.2 he brought along for this exact reason to check on her are the safest courses of action.

 

She’s conscious, somehow, but her breathing is irregular. Her eyes flutter open, fully dilated.

 

“I’m okay,” she croaks between gasps. “Ben, I’m okay. We should try again.”

 

“Stop talking. And don’t move.”

 

The scan from his IT-S00.2 shows the impact cracked three ribs and caused internal bleeding. Kylo is relieved that he hadn’t broken her spine. Still, the tiny droid isn’t equipped to treat this sort of injury. He needs help.

 

Kylo’s teeth set as he admits to himself he’ll need to bring her to the Resistance’s medical staff. Taking along doctors had been the last thing on his mind when he fled with his knights, a few key officers, and a handful of stormtrooper battalions to link up with the enemy. Most of them were disposable, anyway. He knows Rey wouldn’t like him thinking that way, but it’s true.

 

He takes her back to the base in the very ship that had injured her. Her rebel friends are going to kill him. Slowly.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Little-known fact: after Rey and Kylo, Finn is my absolute favorite ST character. I love him so much.

FN-2187—Finn, Kylo’s mind stutters—blocks the entrance to the medical tent where Rey is being attended to, blaster at the ready. Kylo could shove the man aside or rip the foundations of the tent up with the Force or some other third thing to get to her, but he’d look all the worse for it. He can sense that she’s being taken care of, but that’s not the same as seeing her, touching her, holding her hand. If only their bond would let him trespass in a way Finn couldn’t prevent.

 

“Get out of my way. She doesn't need protection from me,” Kylo insists, trying and failing to keep a snarl out of his voice.

 

The ex-stormtrooper shakes his head. “Clearly she does, or she wouldn’t be in this situation.”

 

Finn’s finger keeps twitching over his weapon’s trigger. Kylo is aware he’s seconds away from getting his guts blasted out, but his concern for Rey outweighs the value of his own miserable life.

 

“Now you listen to me,” Finn goes on. “There’s nothing you can say or do to convince me to let you get in there and probably end up hurting my friend for the hundredth time. So scram, you wannabe Sith.”

 

Kylo doesn’t budge.

 

If he did not have the Force on his side, he might have felt genuine intimidation in response to Finn’s righteous fury. He doesn’t get the sense that he is a hostile person by nature, but being in proximity to Kylo Ren brings out pure, unadulterated hatred in him. That’s not to say it’s unwarranted.

 

“Step aside,” Kylo says in his most authoritative tone in the hopes that some of Hux’s supposedly flawless stormtrooper training methods stuck.

 

Finn is not cowed. “Hell no.”

 

Damn. Perhaps the Ben Solo method will be more effective.

 

He gives him an earnest look and says quietly, “Please let me see her.”

 

“What part of ‘hell no’ don’t you understand?” Finn’s expression is harder than ever.

 

Kylo has the most irrational desire to stomp his foot. “Why not?”

 

“Because you steamrolled her with a TIE fighter, that’s why not!”

 

Kylo regards him with a gelid expression and says nothing. It would not help his case to insist that he had only grazed her and things could be much worse.

 

“The only reason I’m not kicking your ass for what you did is because she said not to.” Finn jerks his head toward the tent.

 

“She asked me to help her.”

 

“She asked you to help her by hitting her with your spaceship?”

 

“No. We were training.”

 

"Oh, of course." Finn gives him a dubious look. “Teacher of the year.”

 

This is going nowhere. Kylo turns away with a sweep of his cape that even he can acknowledge is melodramatic, then pauses.

 

He glances over his shoulder. “When you see her, tell her that I’m sorry. And—”

 

The words stick in his throat.

 

Finn raises his eyebrows but says nothing. Kylo bites the inside of his cheek. He could just walk away now and retain his dignity. But no.

 

Heat rises in his face as Kylo forces himself to finish in a rush: “Tell her I love her.”

 

He leaves before he can register Finn’s reaction.


End file.
